Great Bustard Monitoring in Salonta | 9 November 2018

🔭 While we were in the field today, we made some remarkable observations:

• 6 Great Bustards (Otis tarda) – adult males - feeding on rapeseed
• 10 bustards – females – near the males
• Other 7 bustards – females & juveniles (chicks that hatched this year) – feeding at about 200 metres further away from the previous ones. At one point, all the 23 bustards took off, but they came back shortly.
• 5 Hen Harriers (Circus cyaneus)
• One Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus)
• Bonus: one Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus), a rare species. (This is the 13th observation in 2018 in Romania. Out of these, 3 were made in Salonta).

As a conclusion, the birds that were observed are heralds of the coming winter: the bustards feeding on rapeseed – their main winter food, the Hen Harriers, the Rough-legged Buzzard and the Short-eared Owl. These last ones appear in our area especially in the winter time.

Text and photo credit: Milvus Group